Vietnam is in the world’s top 30 countries and regions with high tuberculosis rates, ranking the 16th in the number of tuberculosis patients and the 13th in that of drug-resistant tuberculosis patients, Vietnam News quoted Nguyen Viet Nhung, director of the country’s National Lung Hospital on Monday
According to the report, Vietnam detects 124,000 tuberculosis cases each year, while around 12,000 people die from the disease.
“Up to 70 percent of Vietnamese people with tuberculosis are at working age. Therefore, tuberculosis is really a problem affecting the economy of each family in particular and the country in general,” Nhung said.
He said the rate of tuberculosis infection in Vietnam has fallen in recent years, mainly because the country has mastered the techniques of tuberculosis detection, diagnosis and treatment with good results.
Vietnam has set a goal of eradicating tuberculosis by 2030.
- VNS/ Xinhua